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GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC

For the period ended Dec 31, 2023. Filed Feb 23, 2024.

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About this filing

A company's yearly report to the SEC, with audited financial statements. It is the fullest account a company gives of its business, its finances and the risks it sees.

FY2023 · Filed Feb 23, 2024

GS$910.19+0.4%Stored close · as of Nov 10, 2026

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Contents

Balance Sheet and Funding Sources

Balance Sheet Management

One of our risk management disciplines is our ability to manage the size and composition of our balance sheet. While our asset base changes due to client activity, market fluctuations and business opportunities, the size and composition of our balance sheet also reflects factors, including (i) our overall risk tolerance, (ii) the amount of capital we hold and (iii) our funding profile, among other factors. See “Capital Management and Regulatory Capital — Capital Management” for information about our capital management process.

Although our balance sheet fluctuates on a day-to-day basis, our total assets at quarter-end are generally not materially different from those occurring within our reporting periods.

In order to ensure appropriate risk management, we seek to maintain a sufficiently liquid balance sheet and have processes in place to dynamically manage our assets and liabilities, which include (i) balance sheet planning, (ii) balance sheet limits, (iii) monitoring of key metrics and (iv) scenario analyses.

Balance Sheet Planning. We prepare a balance sheet plan that combines our projected total assets and composition of assets with our expected funding sources over a three-year time horizon. This plan is reviewed quarterly and may be adjusted in response to changing business needs or market conditions. The objectives of this planning process are:

To develop our balance sheet projections, taking into account the general state of the financial markets and expected business activity levels, as well as regulatory requirements;

To allow Treasury and our independent risk oversight and control functions to objectively evaluate balance sheet limit requests from our revenue-producing units in the context of our overall balance sheet constraints, including our liability profile and capital levels, and key metrics; and

To inform the target amount, tenor and type of funding to raise, based on our projected assets and contractual maturities.

Treasury and our independent risk oversight and control functions, along with our revenue-producing units, review current and prior period information and expectations for the year to prepare our balance sheet plan. The specific information reviewed includes asset and liability size and composition, limit utilization, risk and performance measures, and capital usage.

Our consolidated balance sheet plan, including our balance sheets by business, funding projections and projected key metrics, is reviewed and approved by the Firmwide Asset Liability Committee and the Firmwide Risk Appetite Committee. See “Risk Management — Overview and Structure of Risk Management” for an overview of our risk management structure.

Balance Sheet Limits. The Firmwide Asset Liability Committee and the Firmwide Risk Appetite Committee have the responsibility to review and approve balance sheet limits. These limits are set at levels which are close to actual operating levels, rather than at levels which reflect our maximum risk appetite, in order to ensure prompt escalation and discussion among our revenue-producing units, Treasury and our independent risk oversight and control functions on a routine basis. Requests for changes in limits are evaluated after giving consideration to their impact on our key metrics. Compliance with limits is monitored by our revenue-producing units and Treasury, as well as our independent risk oversight and control functions.

Monitoring of Key Metrics. We monitor key balance sheet metrics both by business and on a consolidated basis, including asset and liability size and composition, limit utilization and risk measures. We attribute assets to businesses and review and analyze movements resulting from new business activity, as well as market fluctuations.

Scenario Analyses. We conduct various scenario analyses, including as part of the Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) and U.S. Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act Stress Tests (DFAST), as well as our resolution and recovery planning. See “Capital Management and Regulatory Capital — Capital Management” for further information about these scenario analyses. These scenarios cover short- and long-term time horizons using various macroeconomic and firm-specific assumptions, based on a range of economic scenarios. We use these analyses to assist us in developing our longer-term balance sheet management strategy, including the level and composition of assets, funding and capital. Additionally, these analyses help us develop approaches for maintaining appropriate funding, liquidity and capital across a variety of situations, including a severely stressed environment.

Balance Sheet Analysis and Metrics

As of December 2023, total assets in our consolidated balance sheets were $1.64 trillion, an increase of $199.80 billion from December 2022, reflecting increases in trading assets of $176.27 billion (due to increases in equity securities and government obligations, reflecting the impact of our and our clients’ activities, partially offset by decreases in derivative instruments due to commodity derivatives), investments of $16.21 billion (primarily due to an increase in U.S. government obligations accounted for as held-to-maturity) and collateralized agreements of $9.07 billion (reflecting the impact of our and our clients’ activities).

As of December 2023, total liabilities in our consolidated balance sheets were $1.52 trillion, an increase of $200.08 billion from December 2022, reflecting increases in collateralized financings of $168.54 billion (reflecting our and our clients’ activities), deposits of $41.75 billion (primarily due to increases in consumer deposits, brokered certificates of deposits and other deposits, partially offset by decreases in deposit sweep program balances and private bank deposits), borrowings of $9.72 billion (driven by increases in fair value, partially offset by net maturities) and trading liabilities of $9.03 billion (primarily due to an increase in government obligations, partially offset by a decrease in equity securities, reflecting the impact of our and our clients’ activities), offset by a decrease in customer and other payables of $31.32 billion (primarily reflecting our clients’ activities).

Our total securities sold under agreements to repurchase (repurchase agreements), accounted for as collateralized financings, were $249.89 billion as of December 2023 and $110.35 billion as of December 2022, which were 21% higher as of December 2023 and 15% lower as of December 2022 than the average daily amount of repurchase agreements over the respective quarters, and 26% higher as of December 2023 and 27% lower as of December 2022 than the average daily amount of repurchase agreements over the respective years. As of December 2023, the increase in our repurchase agreements relative to the average daily amount of repurchase agreements during the quarter and year resulted from higher levels of our and our clients’ activities at the end of the period.

The level of our repurchase agreements fluctuates between and within periods, primarily due to providing clients with access to highly liquid collateral, such as certain government and agency obligations, through collateralized financing activities.

The table below presents information about our balance sheet and leverage ratios.

As of December
$ in millions20232022
Total assets$1,641,594$1,441,799
Unsecured long-term borrowings$241,877$247,138
Total shareholders’ equity$116,905$117,189
Leverage ratio14.0x12.3x
Debt-to-equity ratio2.1x2.1x

The leverage ratio equals total assets divided by total shareholders’ equity and measures the proportion of equity and debt we use to finance assets. This ratio is different from the leverage ratios included in Note 20 to the consolidated financial statements.

The debt-to-equity ratio equals unsecured long-term borrowings divided by total shareholders’ equity.

The table below presents information about our shareholders’ equity and book value per common share, including the reconciliation of common shareholders’ equity to tangible common shareholders’ equity.

As of December
$ in millions, except per share amounts20232022
Total shareholders’ equity$116,905$117,189
Preferred stock(11,203)(10,703)
Common shareholders’ equity105,702106,486
Goodwill(5,916)(6,374)
Identifiable intangible assets(1,177)(2,009)
Tangible common shareholders’ equity$98,609$98,103
Book value per common share$313.56$303.55
Tangible book value per common share$292.52$279.66

Tangible common shareholders’ equity is calculated as total shareholders’ equity less preferred stock, goodwill and identifiable intangible assets. We believe that tangible common shareholders’ equity is meaningful because it is a measure that we and investors use to assess capital adequacy. Tangible common shareholders’ equity is a non-GAAP measure and may not be comparable to similar non-GAAP measures used by other companies.

Book value per common share and tangible book value per common share are based on common shares outstanding and restricted stock units granted to employees with no future service requirements and not subject to performance or market conditions (collectively, basic shares) of 337.1 million as of December 2023 and 350.8 million as of December 2022. We believe that tangible book value per common share (tangible common shareholders’ equity divided by basic shares) is meaningful because it is a measure that we and investors use to assess capital adequacy. Tangible book value per common share is a non-GAAP measure and may not be comparable to similar non-GAAP measures used by other companies.

Funding Sources

Our primary sources of funding are deposits, collateralized financings, unsecured short- and long-term borrowings, and shareholders’ equity. We seek to maintain broad and diversified funding sources globally across products, programs, markets, currencies and creditors to avoid funding concentrations.

The table below presents information about our funding sources.

As of December
$ in millions · 2023 · 2022
Deposits$428,41736%$386,66540%
Collateralized financings323,56427%155,02216%
Unsecured short-term borrowings75,9456%60,9616%
Unsecured long-term borrowings241,87721%247,13826%
Total shareholders’ equity116,90510%117,18912%
Total$1,186,708100%$966,975100%

Our funding is primarily raised in U.S. dollar, Euro, British pound and Japanese yen. We generally distribute our funding products through our own sales force and third-party distributors to a large, diverse creditor base in a variety of markets in the Americas, Europe and Asia. We believe that our relationships with our creditors are critical to our liquidity. Our creditors include banks, governments, securities lenders, corporations, pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds and individuals. We have imposed various internal guidelines to monitor creditor concentration across our funding programs.

Deposits. Our deposits provide us with a diversified source of funding and reduce our reliance on wholesale funding. We raise deposits, including savings, demand and time deposits, from private bank clients, consumers, transaction banking clients, other institutional clients, and through internal and third-party broker-dealers. Substantially all of our deposits are raised through Goldman Sachs Bank USA (GS Bank USA), Goldman Sachs International Bank (GSIB) and Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE (GSBE). See Note 13 to the consolidated financial statements for further information about our deposits, including a maturity profile of our time deposits.

Secured Funding. We fund a significant amount of inventory and a portion of investments on a secured basis. Secured funding includes collateralized financings in the consolidated balance sheets. See Note 11 to the consolidated financial statements for further information about our collateralized financings, including its maturity profile. We may also pledge our inventory and investments as collateral for securities borrowed under a securities lending agreement. We also use our own inventory and investments to cover transactions in which we or our clients have sold securities that have not yet been purchased. Secured funding is less sensitive to changes in our credit quality than unsecured funding, due to our posting of collateral to our lenders. Nonetheless, we analyze the refinancing risk of our secured funding activities, taking into account trade tenors, maturity profiles, counterparty concentrations, collateral eligibility and counterparty rollover probabilities. We seek to mitigate our refinancing risk by executing term trades with staggered maturities, diversifying counterparties, raising excess secured funding and pre-funding residual risk through our GCLA.

We seek to raise secured funding with a term appropriate for the liquidity of the assets that are being financed, and we seek longer maturities for secured funding collateralized by asset classes that may be harder to fund on a secured basis, especially during times of market stress. Our secured funding, excluding funding collateralized by liquid government and agency obligations, is primarily executed for tenors of one month or greater and is primarily executed through term repurchase agreements and securities loaned contracts.

Assets that may be harder to fund on a secured basis during times of market stress include certain financial instruments in the following categories: mortgage- and other asset-backed loans and securities, non-investment-grade corporate debt securities, equity securities and emerging market securities.

We also raise financing through other types of collateralized financings, such as secured loans and notes. GS Bank USA has access to funding from the Federal Home Loan Bank. We had no outstanding borrowings from the Federal Home Loan Bank as of both December 2023 and December 2022. Additionally, we have access to funding through the Federal Reserve discount window, but we do not rely on this funding in our liquidity planning and stress testing.

Unsecured Short-Term Borrowings. A significant portion of our unsecured short-term borrowings was originally long-term debt that is scheduled to mature within one year of the reporting date. We use unsecured short-term borrowings, including U.S. and non-U.S. hybrid financial instruments and commercial paper, to finance liquid assets and for other cash management purposes. In accordance with regulatory requirements, Group Inc. does not issue debt with an original maturity of less than one year, other than to its subsidiaries. See Note 14 to the consolidated financial statements for further information about our unsecured short-term borrowings.

Unsecured Long-Term Borrowings. Unsecured long-term borrowings, including structured notes, are raised through syndicated U.S. registered offerings, U.S. registered and Rule 144A medium-term note programs, offshore medium-term note offerings and other debt offerings. We issue in different tenors, currencies and products to maximize the diversification of our investor base.

The table below presents our quarterly unsecured long-term borrowings maturity profile.

$ in millionsFirstQuarterSecondQuarterThirdQuarterFourthQuarterTotal
2025$15,074$12,446$7,099$13,213$47,832
2026$6,702$4,928$7,966$10,55130,147
2027$8,989$3,332$6,981$16,79036,092
2028$11,505$6,345$4,790$5,38828,028
2029 - thereafter99,778
Total$241,877

The weighted average maturity of our unsecured long-term borrowings as of December 2023 was approximately six years. To mitigate refinancing risk, we seek to limit the principal amount of debt maturing over the course of any monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual time horizon. We enter into interest rate swaps to convert a portion of our unsecured long-term borrowings into floating-rate obligations to manage our exposure to interest rates. See Note 14 to the consolidated financial statements for further information about our unsecured long-term borrowings.

Shareholders’ Equity. Shareholders’ equity is a stable and perpetual source of funding. See Note 19 to the consolidated financial statements for further information about our shareholders’ equity.

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